EU Votes to Curb China’s Access to Medical Device Procurement

The European Union agreed overwhelmingly to curb Chinese medical device manufacturers’ access to public procurement contracts in the bloc, according to people familiar with the matter.

EU countries voted Monday on the measure, which will ban access to public contracts worth more than €5 million ($5.7 million), said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The move is the first action taken by the EU based on its International Procurement Instrument, a 2022 law that’s meant to promote reciprocity in access to public procurement markets. Implementation of the restrictions could open a new front with China, just as the EU seeks to strike a balance in its relationship with Beijing while navigating US President Donald Trump’s tariff war.

A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

The EU launched an investigation into China’s procurement of medical devices last April, with the probe finding in January that Beijing discriminated against foreign firms. Consultations failed to find alternative solutions, Bloomberg previously reported.

Beijing’s focus on local and state-oriented procurement in medical technologies has increased in recent years, as authorities across the country included strict domestic product requirements for many categories of device. The shift turned a €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) trade deficit in these goods for China in 2019 into a €5.2 billion surplus just one year later, according to data cited in an EU report published last April. The focus of the investigation wasn’t to reverse that trend but to enable fair competition.

The EU has long argued that Beijing has been pushing market-distorting measures and practices to implement its “Made in China” policy and its target of achieving 85% domestic market share for Chinese companies producing “core medical device components” by 2025. The target is 70% for higher-end devices.

The IPI allows the commission to impose various restrictions on firms seeking to participate in procurements, ranging from score adjustments in tenders to an outright ban from procurement contracts.

Photo: The European Union is set to curb Chinese medical device manufacturers’ access to public procurement contracts in the bloc. Photographer: Milan Jaros/Bloomberg

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